Street Party

Sesame Street. Pop Party. This Tuesday, November 10th is the 40th Anniversary of Sesame Street. Can you believe it. 40 years and the muppet mania continues. I’ve received no less than 1,299,347 requests for Elmo Cake Pops since I started turning my pops into characters more than a year ago. Okay, I’m exaggerating a little on the number. But seriously … Elmo has been one of the most requested pops. So I decided to finally put what’s been in my head on a lollipop stick.

And it didn’t hurt that just last week I found the perfect candy for Elmo’s ping-pong-like-eyes. Actually … all of their eyes.

Solid white. Perfectly round. Perfect size. And perfect. I found them at Wal-Mart. They were in the card and party supply aisle – not in the candy aisle. I stumbled on them and grabbed a bunch of bags and in different colors, too. It never fails.… As soon as I find something I like, it will be discontinued the next time I look for it.

But don’t worry. You can also use white m&m’s, white chocolate coated espresso beans or any other similar white candy you might be lucky enough to stumble on.

Elmo’s noses are simply orange jelly beans. Elmo’s mouth is made of candy melts cut in half, and his eyes are drawn on with an edible ink pen.

To decorate all of these characters, dip them in colored candy coating first.

While the coating is wet, attach the mouth and eyes and let dry. When the attachments are dry, you can use a toothpick to drizzle on more coating.

Let me stop here and tell you. This is time consuming. I wanted them all to have the effect of a furry coat, but you can certainly try another method to speed things up. For instance, they can just be smooth and you can pipe the mouths on with black candy writers or draw them on with an edible ink pen.

But I took the long way, since this was a special occasion. You’ll need to drizzle, dab, and dot all over the cake pop. Or at least all over the front of the pop. I won’t tell. Make sure to layer the coating around the mouth. You’ll need to build up a base around the edges to make it look more realistic and less stuck on.

Use the same technique for Cookie Monster. His mouth is bigger than Elmo’s so I tried to shape a lip this time with the candy melts.

Oscar. Let’s talk about Oscar. After I made the first two characters, I wasn’t completely happy with the mouths, so I tried a different technique with the Grouch and I think he liked it. Instead of one candy melt attached to the front, cut the candy melt in half and use both pieces to form an open mouth. This is a little harder because you have to re-shape the cake balls to somewhat in a C-shape (if you were to look at it from the side). This is so the mouth has somewhere to sit. If you try to make the mouth on the outside of the round ball, it won’t look right. Hope that makes sense. Don’t forget to build up the green around the mouth so it looks seamless. Again… these were some work.

Also, Oscar’s eyes are different than the others. His are inset instead of sitting on top of the pop. To achieve the look, cut the candy pieces in half and attach them. When dry, use a brown candy writer or chocolate candy coating and pipe on eyebrows. His tongue is a red jumbo heart sprinkle with the point cut and rounded off.

Here are the candy melts and how you can cut them for each character.

If you can’t find dark chocolate melts, then chocolate coins might work. You’ll have to experiment with the sizes though.

I almost used these, but I stuck with the candy melts because I didn’t have enough coins.

Now for Big Bird. I love Big Bird.

I gotta tell you, when I started making these, I had no idea how I would pull this big guy off. First, I thought yellow sugar pearls or mini yellow m&ms, but none of those looked right for his feathers. So I used sanding sugar sprinkled on top after drizzling to make him look fluffier. His eyelids are decorated with a pink and a blue edible ink pen. His beak is candy corn with the end cut off to make it easier to attach.

Dip the candy corn in yellow candy melts. But only if the candy coating is thin and fluid like this. By the way, this coating is Merckens and has nothing added to make it this thin. It was heated in the microwave on med-low in 30 second intervals and stirred in between. But if your coating is too thick, you can add some paramount crystals, shortening or vegetable oil to help thin it out. And if it’s not thin, then don’t try to dip the candy corn because it will just be a big glob and not pretty on Big Bird.

Here are a few beaks. Let them dry on wax paper. Or just skip all that and give Big Bird an uncoated orange candy corn beak.

(Anybody tired yet? It’s almost too much to even read about doing. I think I need a nap.)

Below, you can see what I mean with the different mouth variations.

Aren’t they just the cutest. But something is missing. Cookie Monster is smiling, but he’s not happy. He needs cookies.

Here you go. This is for everyone that likes it when I bite into one of these. Poor little Cookie Monster.

Now, a lot of you have sent in photos of your own Elmo Pops. I just haven’t done a great job of keeping track of them all. If you’d like to re-send, maybe I can do a little slideshow or something to show them off. Or any other Sesame Street ones you may have done.

November 10th, 2009.
40 Years of Sesame Street and one happy day.
Kisses to you, Jim Henson.
Wish you were still with us.

How long in advance can you make these, or should I say how long do they last before they go stale. Is there some way to keep them fresh longer. I know that cake can be frozen, would that work. Did you wrap yours?